In what will probably be viewed as a shrewd strategic diplomatic move, Israel has initiated new military aid to non-Arab Muslim nations in Central Asia.

Israel is now openly upgrading the military of Kazakhstan, while offering this nation a wide range of air and ground weapons, upgrades and training.


In a statement to the media on Jan. 22, the Kazakh Defense Ministry said that Israel would modernize the military of the Central Asian state.

The statement said that Israeli companies would help establish production facilities for NATO-standard weapons and equipment.


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Kazakhstan has been negotiating with several Israeli companies, including the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit Systems, Rafael, Advanced Defense Systems and Soltam Systems.

On Jan. 22, a Soltam delegation held talks in Astana, the Kazakh capital, with Kazakh Deputy Defense Minister Kazhimurat Mayermanov.


Israeli expertise will now be employed to modernize a manufacturing facility in the northern Kazakh city of Petropavlovsk. A formal agreement was expected to be reached sometime later this year.

Israel has also been providing training and weapons expertise to other Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, including Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.


David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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